An actor, an inspection, and tonic water add up to...well, not very much, now that I think about it
I
don't know if it's just in comparison to last week, but I feel like very little
happened in this week's episode. Although there were some good individual
scenes, overall this was a bit of a snoozer.
Okay,
so what did we have? The three storylines were the POTW, Amber and Wilson buying
a mattress, and the hospital inspection. The first was fairly typical, the
second is already getting old, and the third never lived up to its potential.
The
best bit of the episode was House's kidnapping, but since that was spoiled by
the teaser last week, it wasn't especially effective. However, I did enjoy
their arrival at the hospital and the vision testing scene, especially after
Foreman's arrival. (Because any scene is improved by Foreman arriving in a
suit.)
I
think my favorite scene was the differential by soap opera. The dialogue was
great, especially Thirteen's "I think I dated that nurse, though."
Heh. The way Taub looks at her was hilarious! And her little smirk at how she
made them react was great too. Not to mention Foreman trying to reassure Cuddy.
Yeah, Foreman, you've done a great job keeping House in line so far.
The
POTW's conversation with House about life was kind of interesting, but it never
went anywhere. We never found out
what he wanted to do, other than wanting his life to be meaningful. Once he was
cured, was he planning to join the Peace Corps? Make documentaries about
poverty? Become a teacher?
The
conversation had a lot of dialogue that sounds good, but doesn't really mean
very much. "Life is dangerous and complicated and it's a long way
down." Well...yeah. So House is pessimistic. This, I must say, isn't
exactly news to me.
Then
we come to Amber and Wilson buying a bed. I have to admit that I actually
fast-forwarded through a couple of those scenes, because as soon as I saw them
testing the bed, I started wincing. First, that Wilson could still be idiotic
enough to think House knows anything about women...well, that explains why Wilson
can't manage to stay married, because obviously he's even more of an idiot than
I thought. Good grief.
The
one thing I liked about the storyline was Amber's diagnosis that Wilson tries
to do everything for the woman he's with, and ends up resenting her. That was
the kind of smarts I would expect to see from Amber. And I liked "I can
take care of me. I need you to take care of you."
The
inspection by the accreditation board was the most potentially interesting
storyline, but other than several very poignant scenes between House and Cuddy,
it was a bit of an anticlimax. The hospital got fined. Which, y'know, it
deserved.
I
did like the scene where he tries to convince her to wait and then call
security, although I think it was the acting that worked for me more than the
dialogue. Hugh Laurie constantly reminds me how incredible an actor he is,
especially in his ability to finely tune the humor, the sarcasm, or the
seriousness of Gregory House.
And
he and Lisa Edelstein played this scene beautifully. I really felt how much she
believes in House, no matter how much he drives her insane. Edelstein had me nearly in tears at "If he dies,
let me know. So I can...pack my things."
Having
said that, did anything actually change because of the inspection? It didn't look
like it from the last scene. The most interesting effect of the inspection was
Foreman lying to House about nuking the patient's thyroid. I feel like that's
going to have some repercussions. Or at least I hope it does, following on from
last week's understanding that House is undermining Foreman's authority with
the team. (Was anybody else curious why they followed him when it came to lying
to House but they didn't when it came to getting their reviews?)
All
in all, this was an eminently forgettable hour of House, but next week looks
like it will make up for it. Hey, any episode with mostly naked Hugh Laurie can
only be so bad, right?